Spiteful and Courageous
by ollietrombone
Summary: Hermione is growing spiteful of her friends. They don't appreciate her, if they did she would actually get some recognition for all she did. But she'd be the better person and put it behind her. She'd end this war without their help.
1. Chapter 1

Hermione could feel a headache coming on. Why couldn't those two stop bickering for once? Ron and Ginny were both red in the face shouting at each other. Beads of sweat were rolling off their faces and spittle was flying everywhere. _Where was Harry when you needed him?_ Hermione thought sullenly.

She'd only been at the Burrow for three days and she already felt she couldn't go on much longer. Harry was supposed to come yesterday but some dementor scare had postponed his arrival to later today.

Hermione sighed and cracked open a book, figuring that there must be something productive to do. Really, sometimes she doubted her choice in friends. Not that there had been much of a choice. The other students had scorned her for brilliance back in her first year. The only reason she wasn't completely friendless was because some blithering idiot had decided it would be a good idea to let loose a bloody troll the night of Halloween.

_Yes, we certainly do have a unique friendship. One that started with a priceless wand being shoved up a disgusting creatures nasal canals. _Hermione thought dryly. This book wasn't helping either. The pages were tearing and the words were water stained. Whoever owned this book this was hadn't taken very good care of it. It was a book about dark magic but she had disguised it to look as if it were about The Goblin Wars. Couldn't risk one of the order members seeing that or they would get suspicious.

It wasn't as if Hermione was a death eater. She was simply curious. A simple Stupefy wouldn't keep the enemy down for long either. But the others wouldn't understand. They'd scorn simply because it had been labeled _dark. _Hermione scowled. Was she really the only person with any brains in this place?

She was torn out of her revere as Ginny threw a book at Ron, obviously reaching her breaking point.

"You know what Ronald? Just leave me alone! It wasn't my fault you crashed your stupid broom!"

"Yes it was!" Ron insisted stubbornly. "If you hadn't let loose the bloody bludgers I wouldn't have run into the apple tree!"

Ginny was about to give a scathing retort when she was interrupted by a knock at the door. Mrs. Weasley popped out of the kitchen for the first time that evening to answer the door.

"Harry! We weren't expecting you so soon! Come in, come in!" she said cheerily, bustling Harry and Hedwig in. "Oh! And Remus! You too, come right in. Make your selves at home." she gave them each a jovial smile and hug before rushing back into the kitchen to put out whatever was burning.

"Harry, it's good to see you." Hermione said sounding relieved. Harry's eyes lit up when he saw her on the couch and he made his way over to her.

"You too Mione! I didn't know you were here too." He said moving to give her a hug. He was about to too when Ginny suddenly popped up. Ignoring Hermione she grabbed Harry's hand and forced him into other couch with her and Ron. Harry was soon swept up in a quidditch conversation with the two and Hermione sat forgotten on the other couch. She scoffed to herself before returning to her book.


	2. Chapter 2

AN: I'd like to thank the two people who took the time to leave a review. This chapter is dedicated to you.

Recap:

_ Harry was soon swept up in a quidditch conversation with the two and Hermione sat forgotten on the other couch. She scoffed to herself before returning to her book._

Mrs. Weasley soon called them to dinner and Hermione set her book on the coffee table. Ron and Harry followed while Ginny had gone ahead to pick her seat. The whole Weasley clan joined them. Hermione got sandwiched between the twins while Harry, Ron, and Ginny sat across from her.

"Hey Mione." George said from her right.

"Lo George, Fred." Hermione chirped from between them. The twins always did make her a bit flustered, ever since George had kissed her when he was drunk at the Christmas party last year.

"You visit Krum this summer like he asked?" Fred asked loudly, catching Ron's attention from his conversation with Harry.

"Or did you just ignore the poor guys affections-"

"You sultry little flirt." They ended together with a perverse waggling of their eyebrows. Hermione blushed before responding.

"Of course I visited him." she said indignantly. "You two know I'm not the type to kiss and tell though so bugger off."

"Oooooh-"

"Who said anything-"

"About kissing?" Fred finished. Ron had turned a delightful shade of plum and pointed a meaty finger at Hermione.

"But, Mione you said you weren't going! Besides why would you want to? He's just a stupid, blockhead-"

"Shut up Ronald! I mean really I thought you were over this already but obviously your not!" she rose from her chair too. "It's not like I need your _permission._" she sneered. "To hang out with my friends. And we're just friends! Saying you don't kiss and tell is just a muggle metaphor. Merlin you guys over react over _everything_." she sat down again with an exasperated look and pointedly ignored Ron's sputtering from above her.

Eventually Ron sat back down and they continued with dinner but conversation was tense. Hermione got fed up quickly and left the table to finish reading her book. Her mood went sour however when she heard a burst of laughter come from the room she just left. Scowing, she padded up the stairs and boarded herself in Ginny's room to begin research on the Night lock curse.

She had to start somewhere after all.

AU: Thanks for reading, the next chapter should be up pretty quickly. I'll try to lengthen my chapters too. Pay special attention to the Night Lock curse it's gonna come up again. If you have any preferences about the pairing tell me, I'm open to suggestions. I warn you though I'm **not** going to do Ron/Hermione. Which is probably pretty obvious.


	3. Chapter 3

Giving a frustrated sigh Hermione shut the book with a snap and picked up the next one. She'd been researching an old tome for an essay last year and there had been a brief reference to the Night Lock curse. It had piqued her interest and she had looked for more information on it.

The Night Lock curse was rare however and it was hard to find much about it. What she had gathered so far was that it was a dark curse that when used on someone sent them back in time. It was designed by Gellert Grindelwald to send one of his followers back to retrieve something he wanted desperately.

Hermione wasn't sure what it was that he wanted, but she figured that if he would go far enough to break about a million laws of time travel, then it must have some sort of value. The only drawback was that when you sent the person back, they couldn't return to their present time. Grindelwald had found this out the hard way when his follower never returned.

Hermione rolled her eyes. What an idiot. One of the darkest wizards of all time couldn't even think far enough ahead to plan a way to bring the object back. She wasn't stupid though, she'd find a way to get what it was that was so valuable and return safely.

Figuring out how to move forward through time actually wasn't as hard as she thought it would be. She'd simply calculated how many turns it would take with her time turner to go back the amount of time required. (1 day= 2 turns) After that she increased the strength of the time turner by adding a couple of her drops of blood to the sand. Blood, after all, was how magic traveled throughout the body. Then she reversed the lever and tested it out for a few hours. It had worked!

Now all she had to do was determine what she was going back for and when. Throwing another book aside her headache grew steadily worse.

This was going to be harder than she thought.


	4. Chapter 4

She quickly exhausted the limited amount of books she had brought with her and was out of anything to read. Because of this she'd been unusually irritable and the Burrows inhabitants had taken to avoiding her. Only two were unfazed by her mood. The twins had taken to teasing her even more. They were used to Ron's short temper so they felt perfectly comfortable with her.

Ron himself on the other hand was growing increasingly frustrated and the twin's decision to befriend Hermione only made it worse. Harry and Ginny had found solitude in each other and were rarely found without the other. Hermione had had the misfortune of walking in on them snogging once and had been assaulted by Ginny's banshee screaming. Harry had apologized later but it had been a sad and unconvincing thing to which Hermione only raised a sarcastic eyebrow.

Hermione was pleasantly surprised by the twin's new openness with her. Fred, she thought, was the more daring of the two. He thought of most of their pranks and was quick to try it out on anyone that was irritating him. George on the other hand was much more practical. He figured out how to go about making most of their products and was a touch more intelligent then Fred if a bit more introverted.

Their fifth year of school, Fred and Georges last, was coming up quickly. After Harry's name had been cleared, they had all endured much whining from Percy's behalf about how Harry was lucky Fudge had been so forgiving, they set out to Diagon Alley for supplies.

"Now, I want you all to be very careful." told them all. "Don't talk to strangers and stick together. I don't want to come back with out one of you like last year." She looked pointedly at the twins who merely grinned at her. "Meet me back here in two hours. Harry, Ron, Hermione, you three go together. The twins will be together of course. And Ginny you stay with me." glared sharply at her before she could protest and they all parted their separate ways.

"Oh! Let's go in the quidditch store first! I hear they've got a brand new broom!" Ron said excitedly. Harry too looked eager to go check out the store but looked at Hermione, knowing how much she detested quidditch.

Hermione shook her head. "You guys go ahead, meet me at the bookstore when you're finished." And without waiting for them to respond she swept off to Flourish and Blotts.

She hadn't expected to run into so many Slytherins when she got there.


	5. Chapter 5

AN: Thank you Redbird27 and Imagen99 for your great feedback and bothering to check out such a small story. It really encourages me to keep writing. This story definitely won't focus on romance. But if there is a pairing you might find interesting later on don't be shy about it. Now on with the story!

She ducked behind a bookcase quickly. Peeking through a gap between 2 books she heaved a sigh of relief when she saw they hadn't noticed her. When she'd come into the store she'd immediately headed to the oldest and most unused section at the back of shop. Hardly anyone came back here. The books were all about dark curses and dangerous animals, it wasn't as if anyone would _want_ to read them.

To her surprise Draco Malfoy, Blaise Zabini, Adrian Pucey, and Pansy Parkinson all lounging back here as if they owned the place. It didn't surprise her that Pansy was sitting on Draco's lap, not to mention trying (and failing) to whisper seductively in his ear. Her lip curled with disgust. What did surprise her, however, was that Adrian looked disgusted as well. Blaise was the only one actually looking through books and probably hadn't even noticed what his friend was doing. With a bored sigh Draco pushed Pansy off his lap and stretched while getting up.

He joined his friends while Pansy pouted on the couch. _What are they looking for? _Hermione wondered. _Especially _here _of all places. _She hadn't thought anyone even knew where this place was, that was why she came here so often, so she could escape her overbearing friends and avoid the sneers of pureblood society. _Too bad it seems society has finally found me. _She quirked irritated.

So lost in her thoughts was Hermione that she didn't notice Blaise getting closer and closer to the bookshelf she hid behind. When she finally _did_ notice it was too late to try and hide somewhere else or scamper off to the quidditch store in search of Harry and Ron.

Blaise's eyes widened as he saw her standing there.

"Granger?"

His call caught the attention of the other Slytherins in the area. Perking up Draco made his way over, sauntering like the annoying prat Hermione knew he was. Pansy and Adrian followed and it wasn't long before she was completely surrounded by the four purebloods.

"What's _she _doing here?" Pansy sniffed, looking at her with obvious disdain.

"Yes, what _is_ the mudblood doing here?" Adrian added not looking particularly concerned by her presence.

Hermione bristled at his jab at her heritage. Really it wasn't as if she asked to be muggleborn. Not that she minded, she added quickly to herself.

"It's a bookstore. It really shouldn't be that much of a surprise to you that I'm here, unless you're all dimmer than I originally thought. Though that wouldn't be much a shock to me sense you _are_ prejudiced imbeciles." she insulted, throwing smirks and sneers in all the right places. It was almost as if she was a Slytherin herself.

Draco scowled , "But this is the _dark arts_ section." he spoke annunciating his words clearly, as if he was speaking to a child. "It's no place a goody-two-shoes gryffindork should be." He practically spat the words at her, spittle flew from his mouth.

"I'm simply getting a book for Remus." Hermione lied smoothly. "There's supposed to be a book on how wolfsbane effects werewolves in this section and I told him I would get it." Her face was wiped clean and showed no signs of her inner turmoil.

"Whatever Mudblood. I don't care if you're getting a book for your precious mutt. We we're using this section so why don't you just go and whore around with the Weasley's like you usually do." Pansy purred out, rubbing her hand down Draco's shoulder who gave her a withering glance before shaking it off.

Hermione felt rage start to take hold of her before she shook it off quickly. A smirk graced her lips as she spoke to them. "I don't know. I need that book and the Weasley's will be able to live without my presence for a while." She drew her wand from her arm holster. "Besides, I've been dieing to try out this new curse that causes fiend fire to attack a person from the inside out. All while keeping the fire perfectly contained to their magical blood source." Her words slipped out sweetly, she slyly drew her wand arm up.

"Who wants to be first?"


End file.
